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The Stay Woke Project #1: The Reading List

Earlier this month, I announced that I would be doing two reading challenges throughout 2017: the “Bowie 100” and the “Stay Woke Project.” Whereas the “Bowie 100” has a hard and fast reading list, the “Stay Woke Project,” does not. Rather, the books that I am adding to my “Stay Woke” TBR are a melange of books I read all or part of during my college days, recommendations from academics, as well as recommended reading lists from “woke” culture workers, and media outlets I trust.

My intent in “staying woke” is to be an ally to marginalized groups under siege from the incoming administration and to better inform myself in the ways that Cheeto Mussolini and his cadre of Batman villains attempt to manipulate reality for their own gain.

What follows is the ongoing reading list that I will be working from. As new titles spring to mind, I will add them here along with the source that alerted me to this title. Later I will add a link to my GoodReads page where you can find my “Stay Woke Project” shelf and see which book I am currently tucked into.

A View From the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation by Tan Hoang Nguyen (ALA)

The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel (recommendation from academics)

1984 by George Orwell (recommendation from academics)

The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz (recommendation from academics)

The Rebel by Albert Camus (recommendation from academics)

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (recommendation from academics)

Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev (recommendation from academics)

This list is by no means exhaustive and I am certain there are cultures and populations of America that are not represented on this list that I need to learn more about. As such, if you have any recommendations for my list, please feel free to tweet them to me @thelexicondev.